What Are They Doing 2022 Chapter 1

1.

Wang Meng swept the floor and looked at the clean courtyard with a hint of sadness.

Although he was considered a partner now, there was a strange loneliness since he didn’t have his own business.

In the end, after various ups and downs, there were a total of eight people—the boss’s friends and assistants, some part-timers, and him—working together on Wushanju’s accounts.

Because of the boss’s recent achievements, these eight people strutted around and used their powerful connections to intimidate people. And they did a good job, too. That was why they were called the “Eight Villains of the Wu family”, and he was their leader.

Thinking of this, Wang Meng became happy again and said to the empty courtyard, “I’ll raise my cup to toast the bright moon and drink for eight people’s success.”⁽¹⁾

Only the magpie in the eaves looked at him.

2.

Kan Jian looked at the letter the boss wrote to him.

“You’re a very smart child. You don’t have to act simple and honest all the time just to win everyone’s favor. When you reach a certain age, you can let everyone know your intelligence.”

The boss had sent this to him on his birthday, all the way from Fujian. The boss’s letters were always so profound and philosophical that Kan Jian’s eyes couldn’t help but become moist whenever he looked at them.

He put down the letter and said to the owner of the optical shop, “Boss, I want a pair of glasses that make me look smart.”

The boss looked at him and handed him a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

Kan Jian put them on and made a gesture in front of the mirror, feeling a bit like a Kingsman secret service agent.⁽²⁾

“Boss, am I really smart?” He asked.

The shop owner felt a little baffled but handed him another pair, which turned out to be a pair of small, round fortune-telling glasses.

Kan Jian took them while thinking to himself, hmm, these look very smart, just like Master Black.

He put them on as he walked out, feeling that he had become very smart.

3.

Baishe was sitting on the edge of the swimming pool. A little boy who was sitting beside him suddenly looked at him and asked, “Since you can swim so well, why don’t you join the Olympics?”

“I’m just a good swimmer,” Baishe responded. “But I’m really slow.”

“What do you mean you’re a good swimmer?” The little boy was curious.

“That is…I’m like a fish in the water.” As Baishe spoke, his eyes were trained on the little boy’s mother on the other side of the pool. The little boy seemed to accept his explanation, so Baishe asked softly, “Your mother hasn’t been looking for your father recently, has she?”

“They’re divorced,” the little boy said calmly. “Mom said she wouldn’t forgive dad.”

“Do you think your mother is lonely?”

The little boy looked at Baishe, pulled a note from his pocket which had the number 42 written on, and then handed it to Baishe.

Baishe found it a little odd, “What’s this?”

“Mom has forty-two suitors,” the little boy said. “You’re number forty-two. “

Baishe was surprised, “That many?”

“Yep!” The little boy answered.

“Is it possible to cut in line?” Baishe asked.

The little boy lowered his long eyelashes for a moment before asking, “Do you play Minecraft? Help me fight the last Shadow Dragon and I can bump you up to twenty-three.”

Baishe narrowed his eyes and thought hard for a while before saying, “Deal.”

<Fireworks><Table of Contents><What Are They Doing 2022 Chapter 2>

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TN Notes:

(1) He modified Li Bai’s poem “Drinking Alone in the Moonlight” (月下独酌). One translation of the poem is here.

(2) Reference to “Kingsman: The Secret Service” movie. Info here.